James Wan

Born in Malaysia of ethnic Chinese parents, Wan's family moved to Australia when he was seven. He credits his mother for cultivating his early love of movies as well as Disney and viewings of horror films like "Poltergeist" (1982) for instilling a sense of darkness into his formative cinematic experiences. At 17, attending the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, he and Leigh Whannell met and bonded over a love of horror cinema that set them apart from their more experimental-film-minded classmates. Inspired by the independence of filmmakers like Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez, they tossed ideas for a low-budget back and forth for several years before settling on the concept of two men... Continue Bio >>